When I notice myself not impacting the ball very well, I often go back to a tried and tested golf drill that tends to transform my ball striking. My tendency is that I can sometimes slide my hips too much through the hitting area causing some 'thin' shots as well my path drifting a little too far right. I firstly use the alignment stick to gain a feel of my hips rotating and my hands staying in front of the clubface at impact.
The way in which I do this as mentioned in a previous post, is that I grip the club with the alignment stick, resting the stick on my left side. The goal then is to swing through the shot not having the stick touch my body at impact. The stick can then touch my body after impact around hip height. When the stick doesn't touch my body through impact, it means my hips are rotating and the hands staying in front of the clubface at impact.
The beauty of this drill is that the body is smart and will do anything it can not to be hit by the stick at impact, therefore the hips start to rotate naturally through the ball forcing the hands to stay forward. Now once I have practiced this drill and can feel this improved impact area, I then focus on changing my path through the ball. As mentioned I can tend to swing to the right a little too much causing a hook, therefore while using this drill I also practice on swinging more left though the ball.
This combination of improving my impact as well as changing my path allows me to compress the golf ball. In essence I train myself to do the opposite of what I'm currently doing. I practice hitting a 'cut' shot to fix my swing as sometimes, as mentioned above, I can 'hook' the golf ball. Also when using the alignment stick, I use a short club for eg. a SW as it will be hard to implement this drill with anything longer.
If you'd like any further information in how to improve your impact area or path, just book a session with myself at David Waters Golf.
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